At The Grocer Health Summit, held in London on Sept. 15, high-profile speakers including leading scientists, government ministers and thought leaders came together to discuss how the food industry can play a role in preventing the country’s public health crisis.
Speakers emphasized retail’s vital role in marketing healthier food and drink options over highly processed, nutrient-lacking meals and how fortifying products with additional vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein could significantly improve the health of the nation.
This, however, is unfolding against the backdrop of the ultra-processed foods (UPF) debate where less is considered more, and an economic climate in which consumers are keeping a tighter hold on their purse strings.
Dr. Chris van Tulleken, associate professor at University College London and author of Ultra-Processed People, said the industry now needs to band together to protect the health of the nation, particularly children, who are at significantly higher risk of obesity and related poor health outcomes than previous generations.
“The companies that are sitting in this room […] have presided over the marketing and sales of an incredibly unhealthy portfolio that has seen a catastrophic deterioration particularly on child health in the UK,” he said. “There is a conflict between the commercial interests of big food companies and some small food companies and the interests of diet-related disease and public health.”
Preserving children’s health
Childhood obesity is on the rise globally, growing from roughly 4% of school-aged children in 1975 to nearly 20% by 2022, according to the World Obesity Atlas.
In the UK, obesity rates have remained relatively stable over the last two decades (around 15%), but there is an increasingly large gap between the most deprived and the least deprived areas.
An analysis published in the journal BMJ indicates that almost a third of children who live in the most deprived areas of England have obesity by the time they leave primary school—twice as many as those who live in the least deprived areas.
Lord James Bethell, a former UK minister, said this epidemic must be addressed by the food industry, which often employs ‘big tobacco-style’ tactics.
“Our food system is an incredibly powerful marketing machine driving addictive products directly at our children from the moment they start walking to school, and getting them to a place where their BMI and their weight is so high that their bodies are literally physiologically changed for the rest of their lives,” he said.
“They are sold a propaganda that snacking […] throughout the day is somehow an alternative to good eating,” he added. “That is really where the debate on food is happening and anyone who doesn’t address those points is, I’m afraid to say, responsible for the ‘deny, distract and delay’ tobacco approach of those who seek to defend the worst things about our food system.”
Sunna van Kampen, a health educator and founder of supplement brand Tonic Health, agreed that products designed for children have a sugar problem, with even ‘healthy’ products often loaded with sugars, sweeteners or additives to make them more palatable and desirable. This extends to children’s supplements, too.
“The number one ingredient in kids’ vitamins is sugar—the vitamin industry for kids buys more sugar than it does vitamin,” he said. “We’ve developed the solution. We have the world’s first vitamin gummy with no sugars, no sweeteners, just beetroot fiber. But why aren’t we getting the shelf presence for that? […] How do we kick the sugar off the shelf and become number one? That’s my job and my challenge for the next two or three years.”
Various strategies were suggested to reduce on-shelf sugar. Van Tulleken, for example, suggested a move away from the Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) towards the South American system where warning labels are displayed on products with high sugar, salt and saturated fat content.
Justine Roberts, founder and CEO of Mumsnet, said the language used on products is also vital. Data from over 5 million users suggests that when mothers talk about their own diet, they use ‘nutrient-friendly’ language (such as ‘high protein’ or ‘high fiber’), but when it comes to children’s nutrition, the focus is more on how the food will impact the child.
“No one’s really talking about the science which runs right through health more broadly,” she said. “Terms like gut health, fermented foods and 30 plants a week are everywhere when our users are talking about their own diets, but when asked about their children’s health, that language sort of disappears. Around two thirds of what mums say about their kids is around the subjects of behavior and sleep.”
Data from Mumsnet shows that parents on the platform tend to talk about supplements pragmatically, either as cover for a restricted diet or in response to a specific deficiency or health concern, and in a format their child will actually take. However, Roberts said mothers have developed a high degree of cynicism toward front-of-pack label claims. Instead of trusting the label, she said shoppers actively inspect ingredient lists or consult parent communities to verify whether claims are genuine.
“82% say they see high protein claims everywhere now, but only 14% say a protein or fiber claim is actually what gets them to try something,” Roberts said. “Protein has won the shelf, but it hasn’t won trust.”
Time to update health claim regulations?
A lack of trust in health claims extends beyond mothers and parents. New global data from market insights firm Lumina Intelligence shows that while the majority of those surveyed want to “age slowly and healthily”, and 70% believe healthspan supplements can work, only 23% are actually buying them due to skepticism over claims and hesitations around proof, cost and safety.
Many speakers also took issue with current health claim regulations in the UK. While the regulations are often criticized as being too restrictive, van Kampen said recommended daily allowance (RDA) guidance can also distort what consumers deem to be healthy or nutritionally valuable.
He gave the example of a coconut drink which provides 90 mg of vitamin C per half liter. This meets the RDA of vitamin C, allowing the company to market the drink as contributing to the normal function of the immune system, but falls short of the 1,000 mg needed for optimal immune support during winter, he said.
“The RDA is the minimum amount you need to prevent a deficiency disease; it’s not the amount you need for optimal health,” he said. “There’s a big difference between what the vitamin industry claims and what the regulation says we should have.”
Dr. Megan Rossi, founder of gut health brand Bio&Me and probiotic brand Smart Strains, agreed that claims can be used to exploit consumers, highlighting that some brands add single isolated fibers into sugary drinks and snacks and then claim gut health benefits on pack.
“We need to unite with retailers to come up with a more specific gut health criteria so we know which products are legitimately good for the gut,” she said. “Popping some inulin into a soft drink and claiming that it’s [gut healthy] makes the public really skeptical and could destroy the whole category.”
Claire Hughes, head of health innovation at Tesco, added that retailers often find it difficult to talk about fiber and gut health in consumer-friendly terms. This is because UK health claim regulations only allow for very specific wording. For example, products containing wheat bran, oat grain, barley grain and sugar beet fibers can use the claim “Contributes to an increase in fecal bulk”, while “Contributes to an acceleration of intestinal transit” is approved solely for wheat bran fiber.
“This isn’t really something that you want to put on your pack,” she said. “We need to focus on how we can translate some of these claims into more motivating language for the customer that actually helps fill a public health gap.”
Thomas Robson-Kanu, founder of functional shot company Turmeric Co., also criticized the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register (GB NHC) for failing to keep pace with speed of innovation and the strength of shopper demand for products with added health benefits.
The former professional footballer argued that many of the claims on the register are ‘outdated’, with more than 2,000 health claims related to plant substances still pending a final decision after more than two decades of regulatory uncertainty.
“There has been so much advancement, so much progression in terms of nutrition and food supplementation, whether it be from protein to fiber, to things that reduce inflammation or support immunity. How can there not be any update to that regulation and guidance?”
“For me, it’s the biggest gap for us to bridge, and if regulation doesn’t evolve then consumers will take things into their own hands.”
The evolving GLP-1 landscape
The rise of GLP-1 drugs has drastically altered the food and drink landscape. While consumers on weight loss journeys previously looked for low-calorie, high-volume meals and snacks, they are now increasingly looking for small, nutrient-dense options.
Nutrient density is therefore a primary focus for brands aiming to support GLP-1 users, with research finding that roughly one in five patients develop at least one new nutritional deficiency within one-year of starting treatment.
Muscle loss, hair thinning and shedding, and other GLP-1 related health concerns are also transforming traditional product categories to holistic need states, according to Rachel Chatterton, product director at Holland & Barrett.
“For years we’ve all sat here and talked about categories, and I think that’s going to be completely industry terminology,” she said. “We’re no longer going to reference bakery, confectionary, supplements, sports nutrition. The customer wakes up, and they’re thinking about what they want to achieve. Do they want to lose weight? Do they need to gain more muscle? Do they need to stay hydrated? We’re thinking about it from a need states perspective and therefore format is becoming increasingly important.”
Brands that will do well out of this new opportunity are those which can offer holistic solutions that target multiple needs at once, according to Neil Mistry, CEO of MyProtein.
“I think the conversation will progress to a wider nutrient stack—so protein, fiber, hydration, vitamins, supplements, and if I was a brand or a retailer, I’d be looking at that holistically,” he said.
However, Leo Campbell, founder of Modern Baker, argued that the UPF debate has polarized discussions about what should be considered healthy or unhealthy. He warned that fortified food and drink products—including those enriched with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients—risk being unfairly demonized as ultra-processed.
“What is traditionally considered wrong with UPFs is their lack of nutrient content,” he said. “If you can put the nutrient content at a high-impact level, high concentration and disguise it in a UPF, then you kind of solve the problem very easily. The truth is that the future is healthy UPFs.”
Campbell also highlighted the growing role of AI in shaping consumer choices, noting that shoppers are increasingly using LLMs to assess products independently of traditional packaging cues and front-of-pack labels.
This, he said, is already allowing some brands to sidestep the limits of health claim regulations. While brands may be prohibited from using claims such as “GLP-1 friendly” on pack, for example, LLMs actively recommend certain products to GLP-1 users.
Campbell said this shift is drastically altering the way consumers shop and is likely to have far-reaching implications for the food and drink industry.
“Both GLP-1s and AI are not in the food industry’s control,” he said. “These are external forces that are shaping a discussion that is redefining what we actually mean by healthy food.”